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path: Home / Fourth Season Episodes * Fourth Season: Genocide & Terrorism
There is much talk in #414 about "neighbors in Kuhndu sleeping at each other's houses." Does this relate to things that are happening in the world in which George Bush instead of Jed Bartlet is President?
We had never heard of this but people at the Television Without Pity West Wing Forum (TWoP) came up with links about situations that appear related although these reports come from civil wars which aren't all that similar to the Rwanda genocide upon which the rest of the Kuhndu situation seems to be based. Here are some of the related items.
These last two links surprised us. We had assumed that during the Rwanda genocide, Hutu militias just murdered every Tutsis they came across (probably slowing down for some rape as well, with the victim of the rapes also being murdered thereafter). They also, of course, murdered Hutus who opposed the genocide. But there are reports that a "quarter- to a half-million women and girls of all ages survived rape." So other people might have also survived horror that didn't end in death and if that is true then forced incest might have been used.

More information on the Genocide in Rwanda: From The Atlantic Bystanders to Genocide - Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy Happen by Samantha Power
Background: "In the course of a hundred days in 1994 the Hutu government of Rwanda and its extremist allies very nearly succeeded in exterminating the country's Tutsi minority. Using firearms, machetes, and a variety of garden implements, Hutu militiamen, soldiers, and ordinary citizens murdered some 800,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu. It was the fastest, most efficient killing spree of the twentieth century."
What the Clinton Administration did: "As the terror in Rwanda had unfolded, Clinton had shown virtually no interest in stopping the genocide, and his Administration had stood by as the death toll rose into the hundreds of thousands.... In reality the United States did much more than fail to send troops. It led a successful effort to remove most of the UN peacekeepers who were already in Rwanda. It aggressively worked to block the subsequent authorization of UN reinforcements. It refused to use its technology to jam radio broadcasts that were a crucial instrument in the coordination and perpetuation of the genocide. And even as, on average, 8,000 Rwandans were being butchered each day, U.S. officials shunned the term "genocide," for fear of being obliged to act.

Josh and Joe go around a bit on what constitutes "terrorism" in "Evidence of things Not Seen" so we looked around and came up with the following:
The Council on Foreign Relations says: The State Department defines terrorism as"premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience."
But
World Conflict Quarterly says three government agencies define it these ways:
US Dept of Defense: The calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.
State Department: International terrorism is terrorism conducted with the support of a foreign government or organization and / or directed against foreign nationals, institutions or governments.
FBI: Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives

Definition of Terrorism [Source: Patterns of Global Terrorism. Washington: Dept. of State, 2001: vi]

"No one definition of terrorism has gained universal acceptance. For the purposes of this report, however, we have chosen the definition of terrorism contained in Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f(d). That statute contains the following definitions:

"The term 'terrorism' means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant (1) targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.

"The term 'international terrorism' means terrorism involving citizens or the territory of more than one country.

"The term 'terrorist group' means any group practicing, or that has significant subgroups that practice, international terrorism.

"The U.S. Government has employed this definition of terrorism for statistical and analytical purposes since 1983.

"Domestic terrorism is probably a more widespread phenomenon than international terrorism. Because international terrorism has a direct impact on U.S. interests, it is the primary focus of this report. However, the report also describes, but does not provide statistics on, significant developments in domestic terrorism. ------- from: Naval Historical Center


"Today, there is no universally accepted definition of terrorism. Countries define the term according to their own beliefs and to support their own national interests. International bodies, when they craft a definition, do so in the interests of their member states. Academics striving to define terrorism are also subject to their own political points of view.

"European countries and the United States tend to define terrorism narrowly, making sure that it only applies to acts of non-governmental organizations. For example, Title 22 of the U.S. Code defines terrorism as "premeditated, politically motivated violence" against "noncombatant targets by subnational groups" usually with the goal to influence an audience.

"The U.S. Department of Defense uses a definition that highlights another element of the Western concept of terrorism. Terrorism is "the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." In other words, terrorism is violence designed to advance some cause by getting a government to change its policies or political behavior.

"Contrast these definitions with one produced by Iranian religious scholar, Ayatulla Taskhiri in a paper delivered at a 1987 international terrorism conference called by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. After a review of Islamic sources concerning terrorism, Taskhiri defined it as follows: "Terrorism is an act carried out to achieve an inhuman and corrupt objective and involving threat to security of any kind, and in violation of the rights acknowledged by religion and mankind."

"This is a much broader definition of terrorism. Under this definition, nation states themselves could be guilty of terrorism. Any inhuman or corrupt objective coupled with an act that threatens security and rights regardless of the motivation could be considered terrorism. Later in his paper, Taskhiri accuses the United States of being the "mother of international terrorism" by oppressing peoples, strengthening dictatorships, and supporting the occupation of territories and savage attacks on civilian areas....

"Consider some additional definitions of terrorism.

  • "All criminal acts directed against a State intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or persons in the general public." (League of Nations, 1937)
  • "Act of terrorism = Peacetime Equivalent of War Crime." (Alex P. Schmid of United Nations Office for the Prevention of International Terrorism. He is the author of many books on terrorism, including Terrorism and the Media, 1992.)
  • "Terrorism is the premeditated, deliberate, systematic murder, mayhem, and threatening of the innocent to create fear and intimidation in order to gain a political or tactical advantage, usually to influence an audience." (James M. Poland, professor of criminal justice at California State University, Sacramento. He has written extensively on terrorism and hostage crisis intervention.)

-------- from Constitutional Rights Foundation

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